Crumble them over salads, like the one with beets and arugula, or slice the log-shaped cheese and serve it on its own as an appetizer, drizzled with good, fruity olive oil.

You can also preserve shanklish in jars, submerged in olive oil, in the refrigerator; it will keep for up to 4 months or more.

Adapted from my Mediterranean Vegetarian Feasts

Detail from a photo by Penny De Los Santos

Sun-drying laban—a fresh cheese made by straining yogurt—was one means, before the invention of cold storage, to preserve perishable dairy products. The cheese was shaped into balls and then rolled in an aromatic mix of seasonings—za’atar, red pepper flakes, or a mixture of local herbs and spices—and then dried completely until rock-hard, finally ready for extended storage in clay jars.

These fermented, extremely pungent shanklish balls are a multipurpose spice in their own right. Ground with a mortar and pestle, they can be used to provide different dimensions of flavor to salads and vegetable dishes.

For about 32 golf-ball-size pieces, or 2 logs

THE CHEESE BALLS

¾ pound (340 g) feta cheese, crumbled

2 cups (500 g) full-fat Greek-style yogurt

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 teaspoons Maraş pepper, or crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

1 tablespoon dried Greek oregano

THE SPICE MIXTURE

⅓ cup (about 15 g) fresh thyme leaves

⅓ cup (about 35 g) coarsely ground coriander seeds

3 tablespoons coarsely ground pink peppercorns

¼ cup (25 g) dried thyme

2 to 3 teaspoons Maraş pepper, or crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

Olive oil, for preserving

Make the cheese balls: In a bowl, whisk together the feta, yogurt, garlic, Maraş pepper, and oregano.

Line a tray with parchment paper. Scoop out about ⅓ cup (80 ml) of the cheese mixture at a time (use a small ice cream scoop, if you have one) and place dollops on the tray, next to one another but not touching.

Place the tray in the refrigerator, uncovered, and leave for at least 2 days, until the mixture is dry enough to shape into balls.

Make the spice mixture: In a bowl, blend all the spice mixture ingredients well. Then spread the mixture on a plate. Roll the cheese balls in the spices to coat on all sides. Alternatively, you can knead 2 to 3 balls together and shape the mixture into small logs, then roll them in the spice mixture and dry. They can then be sliced and served on bread or drizzled with olive oil.

Place the formed shanklish (either the balls or logs) on a clean parchment paper–lined tray. Let dry in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days more.

Fill a jar with the dried cheese balls and add just enough olive oil to cover.

Keep in the refrigerator but take out an hour before serving and let come to room temperature, as the olive oil solidifies in the fridge.

The post Shanklish: Spicy Levantine Cheese appeared first on Aglaia's Table οn Kea Cyclades.

Ground meat, from the local free-range veal of the island, is something that I use a lot. The dark red meat is delicious, but quite tough and stringy, and for that reason I prefer to choose a nice piece, usually soon after my butcher has slaughtered an animal, and mince the meat somewhat coarsely. Unlike most of our neighbors, I rarely make Keftedes, but sometimes I do make my kind of burger, mixing the minced meat with bacon, onion, herbs and plenty of breadcrumbs or ground rolled oats.

It makes no sense to cook less than one, or better two pounds of ground meat, as I did the other day. I mince the onions, garlic and add either grated carrots or mashed corn kernels, then the spices and flavorings, as well as the herbs. It only needs to briefly simmer with wine and lemon juice, and it is ready for many uses. It is insane to go to all the trouble and prepare just 2 cups of Spicy Ground Meat.

The resulting, pre-cooked Meat Sauce can be used simply with pasta, to make my kind of Eastern Mediterranean Bolognese with penne, tortiglioni, or any other large, hollow pasta shapes: Boil the pasta 1 min. less than the package suggests, reserving 1 cup of the water. Then warm the meat sauce over medium heat, toss with the pasta (3-4 cups meat sauce for 1 pound of pasta) and if it is too dry, pour in ½-1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Just before serving, I love to fold in coarsely chopped cilantro from the garden that makes everything more delicious. The sauce is flavorful enough, so you can omit the cheese; at least we do.

With this same spicy meat sauce, I make a more spicy version of Pastitsio, the baked pasta dish which becomes a more grown-up casserole than the comfort food we grew up eating. I complement it with my Olive Oil and Yogurt Béchamel sauce, the same one I use in my Moussaka.

But my most favorite dish I make with the Spicy Meat is in a kind of Lachmacun, or ‘Arab Pizza’ as it is sometimes called: With bread dough –I prefer to use my whole grain one— I shape longish flat-breads, let them rest a bit, then mix 1egg into the ground meat so that the sauce sticks to the dough, keeping its shape as it bakes, and can be picked up and eaten without falling apart, as most Lachmacun do.

RECIPES: Spicy Meat Sauce

Lachmacun: Spicy Meat-topped Pita Bread

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